Axminster fabric



J1me 1955 H. J. SMILEY ETAL 3,187,783

AXMINSTER FABRIC Filed March 3,-1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F'IGI.

INVENTORSI HARRY J. SMILEY MAURICE w. WORTH June 8, 1965 v H. J. SMILEY ETAI.

AXMINSTER FABRIC 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 3, 1965 FIG.3.

FIG.5.

INVENTORS YH ET m .ww M YE R RC Am w HU A M United States Patent 3,187,783 AXMTNSTER FABRKC Harry 3. Smiley and Maurice W. Worth, Giasgow, Va, assignors to James Lees and Sons Company, Bridgeport, Pa., a corporation of Belaware Filed Mar. 3, 1965, Ser. No. 436,959 3 Claims. (Cl. 139-491) This invention relates to an improved multi-height Axminster fabric and an Axminster carpet loom for producing pile tufts of two or more different heights.

This is a continuation-in-part of our application Serial Number 377,768, filed June 24, 1964, which is in turn a division of our co-pending application Serial Number 246,275, filed December 20, 1962, which is incorporated herein by reference for a disclosure of the method and apparatus utilized in producing the fabric of the present invention.

conventionally an Axminster loom of the type used to produce soft floor coverings has been capable of producing only one pile height. The pile tufts are wiped into the warp shed in the loom, whereupon they are anchored, the tube frame raised, and all of the pile yarns are severed by means of a knife extending entire.y across the breast beam of the loom. With the current style trend requiring the production of sculptured or multi-height pile to achieve acceptable design effects, many attempts have been made to produce multi-level pile on the Axminster loom. Some of these have met with moderate success. However, the limitations in the pattern effects that can be achieved are substantial, and, for the most part, it has been only possible to produce geometric designs of high and low uncut pile on an Axminster type loom.

The present invention permits the production of high and low cut pile on an Axminster loom in which it is possible to achieve much wider pattern effects since the present invention provides a more or less random control of the areas in which the low pile tufts are present and similarly the areas in which the high pile tufts are present. This is accomplished by threading only selected tubes in each tube frame with pile yarns. The Axminster loom is modified so that the pile yarns in any given tube frame may be out high or low as desired. It will be understood that, by repeating a selected group of yarns in a series of successive tube frames, a continued area less than the entire width of the fabric may have either high or low pile as desired.

Conventional Arm-luster looms for producing pile carpets are of two types. The older, or comb-type, uses a comb to wipe up the pile tufts before the reed beats up against the fell. The Noseboard Axminster loom employs a reed which beats up with alternately short and full strokes. On the full stroke the reed carries the last shot and the pile tufts up and over the hook of the nose board which has the effect of wiping up the trailing ends of the inserted row of pile. We have modified both of the above conventional looms to produce selected high and low cut pile tufts. The modification takes slightly different forms depending upon which loom is employed. In the comb loom we provide a separate drive with alternate high and low movements of the comb to which an elevator bar is attached whereby in one part of the cycle the fabric is raised from the breast beam of the loom higher than at another portion of the cycle so that the height of the pile depends upon the elevation of the fabric at the time the knives cut.

In the case of the noseboard loom, we mount the knives on a vertically oscillating subframe which is timed to raise and lower the knives to provide the cutting for the high and low pile. Suitable mechanism for displacing previous pile tufts from the knives is likewise provided in both cases. This insures that in the transition from a high ice series of tufts to a low series of tufts none of the high tufts improperly extends between the knives.

A primary object of the invention is to provide a multilever Axminster pile fabric having predetermined random areas of high and low cut pile.

Further objects will be apparent from the specification and drawings in which FIG. 1 is a perspective of a high and low Axminster fabric of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective showing of an Axminster three-shot fabric having alternating rows of high and low pile tufts,

FIG. 3 is an end view of the fabric of FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 shows a three-shot exploded Axminster fabric having two adjacent rows of low tufts and a succeeding row of high tufts, and

FIG. 5 is an end view of the fabric of FIG. 4.

FIGS. 2-5 show in detail a three-shot Axminster fabric having high and low pile tufts in alternate rows. Since the pile yarns are omitted from certain tubes in each frame, there will be gaps in eachtransverse row. These gaps are filled by aligned rows of pile of a different height in the preceding and succeeding rows. This feature is shown in FIG. 2 in which the fabric has been expanded to illustrate the successive gaps in each weftwise row of pile tufts.

\Vhere the pattern requires a plurality of succeeding rows having the same height of pile, a fabric such as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is woven. In this case We show two succeeding rows 226) and 221 of low tufts, there being shown six pile yarns having double tuft legs in each row. This is contrasted to the alternate rows 222 and 223 of FIG. 2 in which the low pile yarns are aligned with a gap in the high pile yarns in row223.

It will be understood that thefabric of the present invention is characterized by the fact that pile height differential from row to row is achieved using yarn of substantially the same character so that the sculptured effect is achieved regardless of any difference in twist or treatment of the yarns in the two rows other than the difference in the height at which the pile projections are cut by the knives. In other words, it is possible to achieve pile height differential in an Axrninster fabric by means other than the height at which the knives cut, for example by relaxing twist or by developing latent twist with steam. These expedients may if desired be used in addition to the present invention to produce the new fabric, but they represent efforts to provide pile height differential which haveleft much to be desired and which do not approach the possibility of obtaining sculptured random effects in an Axminster fabric. It is believed that for the first time applicants have produced an Amninster fabric having sculptured non-geometric areas of high and low pile in which it is possible to have the same yarn treatment for the high and low pile and which requires no difference in twist or finish to achieve the sculptured effect whereby each and every pile yarn may be identical to every other yarn except for the difference in final cut.

By the term yarn of substantially the same character as employed herein and in the appended claims, it is intended to include yarns in different rows havingthe same twist or resulting from the identical yarn forming process and which may be chemically different or may be of different denier. The term is not intended to embrace fabric wherein the different rows contain different yarns that have been mechanically or chemically'treated differently in the manner hereinbefore enumerated as the sole means for achieving height differentials. However, it is to be noted that chemically or mechanically treated yarns may be employed in the present invention so long as the yarn in one row is mechanically or chemically treated to substantially the same extent as the yarn in the other row.

Thejvariations possible with differently colored yarns selectively supplied through less than all of the tubes in various tube frames of a set enable the carpet designer to provide high pile areas of one color and low pile areas of -a contrasting color and the color of the yarn in anyparticular area can be chosen as the designer Wishes. Not only can the color in any particular area be selected, but the color of any particular tuft in the repeat may be chosen. The invention as described herein has been applied to both of the conventional types of Axminster loom,

namely the comb loom andthe noseboard loom. Such looms have been used for over half a century andv examples of relatively late descriptions may be found in US. Patents 2,057,394 to Robertson and 2,804,096 to Hughes for a comb type loom. Relatively recent showings of noseboard looms may be found in Dacey 1,973,335 and Robertson 2,021,431.

Having thus described our. invention, we claim:

1. A cut pile Axminster fabric having a first weftwise double pile row comprising upstanding pairs of pile legs with the legs of each pair being cut and formed from the warp yarns of said first row, the lengths of cut yarn of all of said legs in said first pile row being substantially equal, and a second weftwise double pile row comprising upstanding pairs of pile legs with the legs of each pair being cut and formed from the warp yarns of said second row, the lengths of cut yarn of all of said legs in said second pile row being substantially equal but being cut longer than the cut legs in said first row, the yarn in said first row and the yarn in said second row being of substantially the same character.

. 2. A fabric in accordance with claim 1 in which adjacent weftwise rows contain less than a full complement of tuftlegs to form pile gaps in each of midrows, said gaps in one row being in warpwise alignment with tuft legs in the adjacent row.

3. A fabric in accordance with claim .1 in which there are two successive rows of cut pile legs of the same length and a third row of cut pile legs of a difierent length.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,676,384 4/54 Reinhardt et al 139-401 X 2,745,442 5/56 Heunstadt 139-399 3,126,919 3/64 1 Matthews 139-399 DONALD W. PARKER, Primary Examiner. 

1. A CUT PILE AXMINSTER FABRIC HAVING A FIRST WEFTWISE DOUBLE PILE ROW COMPRISING UPSTANDING PAIRS OF PILE LEGS WITH THE LEGS OF EACH PAIR BEING CUT AND FORMED FROM THE WARP YARNS OF SAID FLOW ROW, THE LENGTHS OF CUT YARN OF ALL OF SAID LEGS IN SAID FIRST PILE ROW BEING SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL, AND A SECOND WEFTWISE DOUBLE PILE ROW COMPRISING UPSTANDING PAIRS OF PILE LEGS WITH THE LEGS OF EACH PAIR BEING CUT 